


Clara, this is the TARDIS! Not a shopper hopper!

by DivineVarod



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Addric, Best Friends, Domestic, F/M, Friendship, Funny, Male-Female Friendship, Normal Life, Nyssa - Freeform, Shopping, Slice of Life, TARDIS - Freeform, Tegan - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-09-12 04:25:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16866091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DivineVarod/pseuds/DivineVarod
Summary: When you're friends with a man who owns a time machine who else would you call on when that lovely antique store sells the one thing you'd set your heart on to someone else?





	Clara, this is the TARDIS! Not a shopper hopper!

"VWORP VWORP VWORP"  
  
Clara's eyes snapped open just in time to see how the Tardis door swung open and the Doctor propelled out, sonic screwdriver at the ready.  
“I'm here Clara!!” He exclaimed, scanning the area.  
To his great confusion the Doctor noticed nothing, nothing but a soft chuckle he would recognize anywhere. He looked again and realised: he had landed in Clara's bedroom. And it was only then that he noticed that Clara herself was observing him from her bed, where apparently she'd fallen asleep waiting for him.  
He cleared his throat awkwardly, putting his sonic away in embarrassment with an over the top flourish that made him cringe.

“Well …?” He asked.  
“Well what?” she smiled as she got up and walked towards him.

“Well, what's the emergency?”  
That was a rather odd question, Clara thought as she frowned at him. “What emergency?”  
The Doctor's eyebrows shot up, he had rather a lot of them, so when he did that you took notice. “The one you called me about of course!”  
For a second Clara wondered if a version of the Doctor from a different timeline had accidentally wandered in.  
“I never called you about an emergency!” she insisted, hoping this Doctor would leave so the one she had been waiting for wouldn't crash in on him.  
“Yes, yes you did!!” The Doctor was adamant. “You called me exactly a minute ago saying, and I quote; 'Doctor, get here now!' that sounds like an emergency to me!”  
  
“Oh ..” Now it was Clara's turn to feel rather embarrassed. This was the right Doctor after all.

She bowed her head a little, looking at the Doctor sheepishly. “Oh … I … guess that might have sounded a bit more urgent than it should have ...” she mumbled. It hadn't really, but in her hurry she had simply forgotten that her sweet Doctor wasn't that good with modern social code.

“Well .. what was it then?” The Doctor insisted. “I let a Dalek escape for this!!”

Within a moment Clara Oswald had lost every shred of embarrassment as her face lit up with a megawatt smile. “Guess what, Doctor!” She said filled with a quiet yet forceful determination; “We're going shopping!”

To Clara's surprise the Doctor seemed to turn rather pale, taking a step backwards “Shopping?” he asked, hoping he had not heard this correctly.  
  
“Yes, shopping.” Clara smiled with that enigmatic confused frown she could have.  
  
“No, I don't do shopping!” The Doctor said, trying to retreat back to the Tardis hoping for a swift retreat and to skip to a much later date where she would have ceased with those silly notions.  
A tiny hand took his arm and forced him to look at her.  
“What do you mean; you _'don't do'_ shopping?” She said, making the words sound forceful and important.  
“It means”, the Doctor said, shaking his arm, “That I don't do shopping.”  
For some reason Clara now stood between him and the safety of the Tardis.

“Well, you better start then, as I need to go shopping. Come on, who doesn't like shopping?”  
  
The Doctor was getting fed up now. Why would Clara, of all people, bother him with this nonsense?  
“Well … you see the Doctor,” He grumbled in his Scottish burr. “THE Doctor, especially this one, me, does not like shopping! I once did. But … Oh, I can remember it as if it was yesterday!! Every love of shopping was depleted when I treated Nyssa and Tegan as a thank you and the experience was more traumatic than the battle with Cyberman we won an hour before.”  
Clara rolled her eyes as he continued.  
“I still remember poor Adric weeping in my arms as Nyssa entered the booth for the fortieth time. This guy was a mathematics genius and as smug about it as the day is long, but this trip broke him. He never let me hear the last of it! Well, how could I have known that the biggest clothing mall in the universe was a bad idea? So no. No to shopping especially when it's for clothes! Is it clothes?”  
  
An enigmatic smile lit Clara's face as Tardis doors swung open at the click of her fingers.  
“Clothes? Of course not, come along now, I'll show you on the way.”  
“Clara, this is the Tardis, not a shopper hopper!” It was only the faintest of protests now and Clara sensed she was winning as she beamed at him.  
“Well, this isn't just ordinary boring shopping. Mr!”

The Doctor stopped to think, his interest peaked. He looked at her approvingly.  
“Clara Oswald!” He beamed, “how could I be so stupid!! Of course it isn't!! You could and would never call me to do anything so boring as normal shopping. “  
Against his better judgment he felt himself getting interested.  
  
The look in his eyes followed by the silence told Clara she could continue. “You know that lovely Victorian coffee table I wanted?” she said as she took her mobile from her pocket and showed him a picture,  
  
A blank look was her response. “No ...”  
  
“I definitely told you about it, remember, last week?”  
  
“Which last week?”  
  
“The last time you were here?”  
  
“I'm not sure that was the last time we met.”  
  
“Well, when we rescued the girl from that slimy thing?”  
  
“Oh, yes. Oh I remember, sounded like a lovely table,”  
  
“Well, I had to wait to save up for it and now someone totally got there first.”  
  
“So, why need me if someone already bought it?”  
  
“Well, I want you to bring me back a day before they buy it so I can get it.”  
  
“Ah,” The Doctor smiled, “now I get it, let's go!!” Then he stopped himself.  
  
To the Doctor's annoyance Clara did that strange thing with her eyes where she looked at him and he felt himself wanting to do things he had never done for any of his past companions. He had almost grabbed her hand to pull her into the Tardis and change history all so she could get that damn table she clearly wanted so badly.

He saw Clara look at him in confusion.  
  
“What's wrong?” She asked, eyes big in confusion.

Why was embarrassing himself in front of her so much worse than with any other companion? Was it because she had seen all previous versions of him and he had to live up to all that?  
  
“I'm sorry Clara, I cannot do that. You know I can't!”  
  
“What?” There it was, that scoffing disappointment that burned right through him.  
  
“It has already happened. This person has bought it, you have lived that moment. I can't go back to change it.”  
  
She didn't seem impressed by that, well in all honesty he wasn't either.  
  
“Why, it's not as if the universe will collapse just because I'm getting a table.”  
  
Ah, now she'd done it, questioning his authority again. Well one thing was certain: _no tables would be bought today!!_  
  
“We don't know that. And who knows how badly the other person wanted that table? Anyway, you're not dressed for shopping. Who goes shopping in pajamas?”  
  
Clara gasped: “This is not a pajama!”  
  
“It is!”  
  
“It so is not!  
  
“Then why were you laying on your bed?  
  
“I was listening to music and waiting for you and your stupid time machine.”  
  
“TARDIS!!” He shouted, getting rather agitated.  
  
Silence. _Had he won?_  
No, no Clara's face changed again. Oh, she smiled, she smiled oddly. As if she'd won something. Had she won? She couldn't have won this argument, _could she?_  
  
“But … hang on … Doctor … This is a time machine? Right?”  
  
“Y … Yes ...” He stammered, suddenly painfully aware of where this could be heading.  
  
“A TIME machine!!”  
  
_Yes, it was happening he nodded_ as Clara dashed inside ecstatically. Somehow tables _would_ be bought today.  
  
“How stupid am I!! Doctor, take me to 1805. I can get one custom made!! Actually: I could get two, and a couch. Or one table, some chairs and a couch!!”  
  
She'd beaten him, _again!_ Was he sure she wasn't Missy in disguise?  
  
“All of time and space and she uses it to pre-order furniture. When will I learn?!”  
  
Then Clara popped out of the blue box to grab his arm.

“Come along now, you know you like it, maybe we'll get into trouble!”

Shaking his head the Doctor followed Clara inside. Who was he kidding? Of course they were leaving. No matter how much he protested he knew he would obey her. He always would. There was something about this girl, this impossible girl, that made him unable to refuse anything. And, he had to admit, he rather liked getting into trouble with her.  
  
“With you I already am! Come on then, ask the Tardis, tell her where you want to go!”  
  
As Clara's eyes sparkled brightly at him The Doctor knew he did not care where he was going as long as he was going there with her.


End file.
